William Randolph Hearst’s Concern About His Llama’s Sex Life

Even if you know little about publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst you may have inferred a few things about him from Orson Welles film Citizen Kane (1941), “loosely” based upon Hearst’s life,

Hearst, an inveterate collector, loved all animals. He could not stand to see any animal suffer. Mice and even rats were to be caught and released.

Hearst built a private zoo on the grounds of Hearst Castle, his San Simeon estate in California, much like the zoo briefly seen on the Xanadu estate shown in Citizen Kane.

The following story is from Edmond D. Coblentz, in his book, William Randolph Hearst A Portrait In His Own Words (1952) Simon & Schuster.

Coblentz was editor of the Hearst San Francisco and New York papers and later as supervising editor of all Hearst newspapers.

With the building of the castle at San Simeon, Mr. Hearst built a zoo to house the dangerous animals. Free on the hillsides of his ranch roamed all types of wild beasts, from antelope to zebras.

The animal wild life increased and multiplied, until Mr, Hearst was compelled to get rid of some of his four-footed friends.

T. J. White, then his Chicago publisher, forwarded a request from the zoo officials for a pair of female llamas. Mr. Hearst replied:

‘Dear Tom:

“Your capacity for detail is enormous, but you do nor know all about the love life of the animals on the ranch.

“We have five female llamas and fifteen male llamas.

“That explains our desire to get rid of males rather than females.

“You see, if we got rid of the five females, all the fifteen males would have no companionship, and might become pansies.”